Digest

April 14, 2009|STAFF REPORTS

Miami-Dade County

Mom accused in kidnapping

A woman and her 17-year-old son were kidnapped last Thursday and held for ransom, with one of the kidnappers holding a blow torch to the teenager's leg so he could tell his father the kidnappers were serious, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Turns out the mother was in on the plot, and she was charged Monday along with two accomplices for the kidnapping, prosecutors announced.

Few details were made available Monday, but prosecutors identified the woman as Alejandra Arriaza, of Miami. Also charged were Angel Ponce and Joel Boza, also of Miami. All three face life in prison if convicted.

According to prosecutors, the kidnapping took place after a shopping trip to a South Florida Wal-Mart. Ponce pretended to force Arriaza to drive her to his house in Miami, and Boza held a lit blow torch near the teenager's leg so the victim could tell his father. The blow torch burned the hairs off the boy's leg.

Hollywood

Pit bull attacks, injures terrier

A pit bull that accidentally slipped out the door of its home about 2 p.m. Monday attacked and seriously injured a rat terrier that lived doors away, police Lt. Manny Marino said.

Marino said the pit bull got out of its home in the 5400 block of Flagler Street when its owner stepped out to smoke a cigarette.

The attack occurred less than two weeks after a pit bull mix tore open the belly of an 11-pound dachshund in Tamarac.

Lauderdale Lakes

Murder suspect sketch released

The Broward Sheriff's Office released a composite sketch Monday of one of the men suspected of robbing then fatally shooting Gregory Smith, a Boyd Anderson High student killed outside the school on April 4.

Sketches of the other three men were not made but officials say one of them wore prescription glasses and hair done in short dreads; a third is said to be heavy-set and the fourth is described as wearing a short afro.

Police said they fled in a dark blue or dark green, mid-90s to early 2000 Mustang.